Re: [UUPoly-L] Avoiding Stereotypes

[sespruiell <sespruiell@aol.com>]

In response to Jasmine:

I don't believe I was stereotyping you or anyone else.  I also admit that I know nothing about you, so let me be more concise.  I was speaking of my experience.  
I have been a participant in a liberal religion for much more than a decade (UU), and prior to embracing UU, I was raised in the largest cosmopolitan center in the country (NYC). My experience with people in NYC has been pretty diverse, and my experience with LGBT people has been considerable.  I have also had the opportunity of having traveled fairly extensively across the country, and in my experience, people outside of NYC tend to be much more conservative, more invested in  monogamy as an institution, and less accepting of cultural diversity than NYC natives. It is also my experience that the majority of LGBT people that I've encountered in my lifetime, in general seem to be just as biased towards polyamory, and just as invested in monogamy as the rest of the general population that I have encountered. The reaction of the media towards the issue of "cheating" seems to bear this out.  We have discussed extensively the struggles we have been having with poly acceptance in our own "Liberal" congregations.  So since the question was whether this election bodes well for poly acceptance, I would say that it doesn't bode well at all.  Polyamory and other forms of sexual identity, is going to have a hard row to hoe in American society for some time to come.  La Lucha Continua.

Selah Eric Spruiell



In a message dated 11/10/08 11:01:12 Central Standard Time, Jasmine writes:
In my experience, attitudes of bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgender   
people toward monogamy and polyamory are wildly diverse. Their reaction toward   
polyamory visibility runs the gamut from fearful, active opposition, through   
disinterest, to enthusiastic, active allies. 

I don't want people to stereotype me, as a poly person, thinking they know   
everything that I think on certain issues just because they know that I'm poly. 
In the same vein, I should avoid stereotyping others. 

Jasmine 

This election doesn't show any helpful signs for Poly Acceptance.  Check out what happened with Homosexuals in California.  Both Obama and Bidden said publicly that they didn't condone Same Sex Marriage.  And quiet as it's kept, I believe that most homosexuals don't condone polyamory either, at least that's my experience.  They've bought into Institutional Monogomy hook, line and sinker.  I'm afraid that sexual identity and acceptance is the last frontier.  And it's gonna take a while too.  That Puritan strain of ours just won't quit easily. 

Selah Eric Spruiell